occulted

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of occult.

   Astronomers timed exactly how long the star was occulted by the passing asteroid.

   The moon briefly occulted the planet, and the crowd at the observatory cheered when it reappeared.

   Note

   One spelling serves as simple past (the moon occulted the planet) and as participle after have or be (the star was occulted by an asteroid). It belongs to the verb of hiding, not to the occult of magic and astrology, so an occulted star has been covered, never enchanted; the verb's rare sense of concealing in general shows up in the "secret" adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Hidden from view by another body passing between it and the observer.

   Observers recorded the exact moment the occulted star reappeared at the moon's edge.

   Timing an occulted star's disappearance from several places can reveal the shape of the asteroid in front of it.

   Similareclipsed

   Note

   The nearer body must look larger in the sky for the word to fit, as when the moon passes over a star; when it looks smaller and only crosses the farther one's face, as a planet crossing the sun does, astronomers speak of a transit instead. Francis Thompson turns the image to a woman's eyes, each a "half-occulted star" beneath her lids.

3. 3
   adjective

   Kept hidden from others or secret.

   The investigation exposed an occulted network of shell companies behind the deal.

   Years of therapy slowly brought her occulted fears to the surface.

   Similarhidden, secret, concealed, covert

   Oppositeopen, revealed

   Note

   The literary sense of hidden guilt and quiet power: Shakespeare's Hamlet asks Horatio to watch his uncle in case "his occulted guilt" fails to "unkennel" itself during the play. Political writing still finds a use for it, as when Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman describe an "occulted imperium" that works through financial infrastructure rather than military bases.

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